MAG-40; Arizona 2010

MAG-40; Arizona 2010

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After Action.net attended the very first MAG-40 course offered by the Massad Ayoob Group, hosted by Gator Farm Tactical at the Sierra Vista Shooting Range in southern Arizona in May 2010. Massad Ayoob had left the Lethal Force Institute after 28 years as its director and was now teaching through his new school.

Course overview

  • School: Massad Ayoob Group (MAG)
  • Course: MAG-40, 40 hours of classroom and range work
  • Host: Gator Farm Tactical Applications
  • Location: Sierra Vista Shooting Range, run by a coalition of local clubs including the Cochise Gun Club and the Sierra Vista Rod and Gun Club

The setting

  • The range sits roughly the same distance from Sierra Vista, Bisbee and Tombstone, near Fort Huachuca, home of Army Intelligence and the Army’s electronic proving ground. Drones from the base were a common sight overhead.
  • Range rules were read and enforced from the start: safety first.

Massad Ayoob on concealed carry laws

  • In 2010 Ayoob saw concealed carry as an area where gun owners were winning. Only a few years earlier, seven states had no legal way to carry concealed; by then only Illinois and Wisconsin remained.
  • His advice for residents of restrictive states was to work within the system. Florida and Texas both went from no realistic carry to shall-issue.
  • The deciding voters are the undecided middle, and the record across shall-issue states supports carry: the predicted violence never happened.

Massad Ayoob on carrying a second gun

  • A backup gun is like a spare tire: it is there for emergencies.
  • It gives a second position to reach if the gun hand is disabled, a better draw while seated or belted in a car, and a fallback if the primary jams, breaks or is lost.
  • Do not carry anything you cannot explain. If you can articulate the reason, you can explain it to a jury.

Takeaways

  • MAG-40 combines the legal and the practical: the classroom portion is as valuable as the range.
  • A backup gun is a reasonable choice for many carriers, especially those who spend a lot of time driving.
  • Continue with MAG-80.

Originally published on After Action.net on May 20, 2010. Rebuilt from the archived report and the video transcripts; the original photos were not preserved. See every class in the Training Log, or share your own training experience.

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